There is an optimistic sign for Black prospective workers, however. The overall unemployment rate has dropped 3.9% and more than twice that for the Black community, Bernstein said. The rates dropped in 2021 quicker than any other year since unemployment started being tracked in the 1940s.
“That helps a lot when there’s a bargaining power for workers,” he said. “When there are more job openings than there are unemployed people. It’s what I call necessary, but not sufficient. It certainly helps, but we need to do more to take down those barriers, which discrimination is one.”
There are currently 11 million job openings and six million unemployed Americans, per Bernstein. Part of the recent “Great Resignation,” the millions of Americans who have quit their jobs in the past few months, has led to many citizens finding higher-paid employment.
“People are upgrading their jobs,” Bernstein said. “They’re taking advantage of this tight labor market to find better jobs. That is very consistent with Joe Biden’s view that a tight welcoming labor market is one that provides opportunities, particularly for people and communities that have long been left behind.”
